₦airaland Forum

The Central Criminal Court popularly known as Old Bailey, United Kingdom, has reportedly said that the plea and trial hearing of former Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, and his wife, Beatrice over organ trafficking scheduled for Monday, will not hold.

Recall that Ekweremadu and his wife, on July 23, 2022, were being charged with Dr Obinna Obeta, on allegation of wanting to make payment for the procurement of an organ for their daughter, Sonia, from one David Nwamini.

The allegation led to the detention of Ekweremadu in a UK prison after the June 23 arrest.

In a report by Guardian.ng, the court said it will not be sitting due to the non-availability of Sonia, whose case was established.

The report added, “the court official didn’t categorically say whether the Ekweremadus’ sickly graduate daughter, Sonia, is now a defendant in the case, for which her parents were arrested. The Old Bailey official said they won’t have to wait for long, as the “case will be re-listed for sometime during the week.”

Speaking further, the court official maintained that although Monday, October 31, 2022, was fixed when the couple and their co-defendant appeared before the judge on August 4, Sonia wasn’t listed in the hearing then, adding, “the judge won’t be hearing the case because ‘there’s no counsel for Sonia.’”

Keeper101:
I agree with you my brother!

An attack by terrorists on the military cantonment at Wawa, Niger State, on Saturday midnight, was prevented by combined efforts of both air and land forces.

Our correspondent gathered that no fewer than two terrorists were killed during a gun duel that ensued between the hoodlums and the military.

A source said several terrorists fled with gunshot wounds and a manhunt had been launched for them.

“Some were arrested immediately after the foiled attack, while more were arrested alive in Gada Oli bush in the afternoon,” the source added.

Also, a situation report seen by our correspondent on Sunday said the terrorists came with a vehicle loaded with Improvised Explosive Devices.

The signal read in part, “Two Motorola radios were captured, an unconfirmed number of ammunition were recovered, and two vehicles; one of the vehicles was laden with IED, bombs, and an aircraft gun.

“The facility and commodities are safe. NAF’s super Tucano and surveillance aircraft are on patrol around the area.”

Students of the Moshood Abiola Polytechnic, Abeokuta, Ogun State, have started a fundraising campaign to release their colleagues who were kidnapped by gunmen along the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway.

Two MAPOLY students, Adejare Olayemi (male) and Oluwatobi Orekoya (female), and one Aminat Taiwo (female), were kidnapped on Friday on their way to Ibadan, Oyo State, alongside a former Deputy Vice Chancellor of the University of Ibadan, Professor Adigun Agbaje.

The students and the professor were reportedly picked up near the Sat Guru Maharaji Garden, Ibadan end of the expressway.

The abductors later contacted the families of the victims and demanded N50m for Agbaje, while N10m each was demanded for the students.

PUNCH Metro gathered that the President of the Students’ Union of the school, Sodiq Ajani, and his Publicity Secretary, Joy Okolie, issued a statement soliciting funds to rescue their colleagues.

Our correspondents also obtained a poster containing information and pictures of the students, which was circulated on social media and different WhatsApp groups.

A source revealed that during the negotiation with the kidnappers, they agreed to take N2m for each of the students.

He said, “We have raised the ransom of one of them, but the other person’s money has not been completed. We are looking for the money so they can be released together.”

Ajani confirmed the reduction of the ransom in a telephone interview with one of our correspondents on Sunday.

He said, “Through friends and other supports, we have raised over N900,000 as of this morning (Sunday). The money is not complete yet; we are still soliciting more financial support.

“There are only a few hours left before the deadline given by the kidnappers.

“The students’ union has reached out to the state government through the SA on students’ affairs. We have also met with the Ogun State Commissioner of Police and the Director of DSS.

“We were assured that the security agencies were working fastidiously to facilitate the release of the victims. However, the urgency and sensitivity of the matter necessitated the fundraising.

“We urge the public to save the lives of these students. Tomorrow may be too late as the ultimatum given by the captors ends today (Sunday).”

The Head of Public Relations of the institution, Yemi Ajibola, said the school had reported the case to security agencies and the state government.

He said, “As of today, I learnt the kidnappers have reduced their demand, but I will not be able to give details.”

Meanwhile, the Oyo State Police Command has said its officers and men are combing the forests to rescue those abducted by the gunmen.

The state Police Public Relations Officer, Adewale Osifeso, said, “The Deputy Commissioner in charge of the State Criminal Investigation Department is leading the operation. Officers and men of the command are in the bush as I talk to you and doing everything to free the victims. That is the most important thing to us now and we are working to ensure that.”

Oluwatobi’s family member, Segun Orekoya, late on Sunday, said she had been released.

He added that she was released along with her friend, Taiwo, adding that N2.2m was paid for their ransom.

He said, “It is confirmed, they were released this evening (Sunday). The two girls were released after the kidnappers collected N2. 2m.

“They are presently home with their families. I don’t have the full details, but I know they have been released.”

The student leader, Ajani, also said the male student had been released.

There were also unconfirmed reports that the professor had been released.

Efforts to confirm the development were abortive as of press time.

Mayany:
Obi has nothing to hide hence he is free to engage Nigerians unlike others who are hiding behind spokesman

broadman20:
This Labor party people are very good in what they are doing.

By the time this people will unfold all their plans....hmmmmm!

APC and PDP will be a thing of the past.

ThEGodFaThErss:
ok, Mr. Adviser Nowamagbe

ThEGodFaThErss:
I want to believe you are the same person. the last time I saw your pictures in Edo, I noticed you're now into politics.

ThEGodFaThErss:
Bross, how things? it's been a long time. I know you wella those years you frequent Lagos for your musical band and your favourite hotel, Selino Suites where you always lodge. i still have your first album CD you gave me.

Redomi:
You refused bags of money in Abuja, but couldn't refused the every Sunday contributions and tithe from your poor church members

Omihanifa:
Why can’t he name the ministers that offered him money.

Brainmytool:
Why were you in a bulletproof car man of god?

THE General Overseer of Omega Fire Ministries (OFM), Apostle Johnson Suleman, has claimed that assassins were sent after him after he rejected, in Abuja, a bag of money that was offered him by unnamed ministers, who were not comfortable with his condemnation of killings in Nigeria.

Suleman made the claim in a 50-second video watched by our reporter in Benin yesterday.

The popular Auchi, Edo State based cleric’s convoy was attacked at 5:45 p.m. on October 21 this year on Warrake-Auchi Road in Edo North Senatorial District, leading to the killing of seven persons, including three police inspectors.

One of the attackers who was arrested by vigilance groups’ members in the area was also shot dead by a policeman.

Suleman said: “In 2017, some ministers called me to Abuja after I spoke against the killings on a national scale, and they sat me down, threw a bag of money, and they said to me, take this and shut up.

“They threw out an AK-47 (rifle), they threw out a newspaper, and they said take the money or you go by these two (AK-47 rifle and newspaper).

“I told them that I did not understand what they meant. They said if I did not do that (make the choice of money), in the next one year, we would make sure that in this country (Nigeria), you would not hold the microphone again. Keep your mouth shut.

“I said to them I never knew what I said was actually a big deal, now I want to start talking. I said if you wanted to come for me, please you were very free to bother yourselves, because I would keep talking, and I kept on speaking.”

President of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Archbishop Daniel Okoh, and other major stakeholders within and outside Nigeria condemned the assassination attempt on Apostle Suleman while calling for a thorough investigation.

The general overseer of OFM, who returned to Nigeria two days earlier after a ministration in Tanzania, was joined in his bullet-proof Sport Utility Vehicle (SUV) at Benin Airport by his wife and children for the journey to Auchi.

The outgoing Edo State Commissioner of Police, Abutu Yaro, now an Assistant Inspector-General of Police (AIG), ordered the immediate withdrawal and interrogation of the Divisional Police Officer (DPO) of Auchi, Ayodele Suleiman, a Chief Superintendent of Police (CSP), and debriefed him at the state’s police headquarters in the Government Reservation Area (GRA), Benin.

The newly-promoted AIG stated that interrogating Auchi’s DPO was part of the measures taken by the command considering the circumstances that led to the death of one of the members of the gang that attacked the convoy of the cleric.

He urged members of the public to remain calm and patient, assuring that no stone would be left unturned to unearth the circumstances surrounding the attack, murder of seven persons and killing of the arrested hoodlum.

A Toyota Avensis car with registration number, Lagos: KRD 92 HU, was recovered from the suspected criminals.

Yaro, while pleading for calm, promised that the command would deploy all its human and material resources to ensure that the assailants were brought to book.

The police chief urged Edo residents to swiftly report any strange movement or unusual gathering within their environment to the police and sister security agencies, while reiterating that security should be everybody’s business.

Apostle Suleman, however, said the killing of the arrested suspected assassin by a policeman was a cover-up, while he called on security chiefs in Nigeria to ensure thorough investigation and diligent prosecution to serve as a deterrent to other criminally-minded persons.

BeardedMeat:
Did you wake and bake on empty stomach?

That shii can ruin your morning.

I advice you drink lots of water and take a chill pill.

Corridon:
I can bet my left sided testicle that the the Yekini I know will never grace the occasion.

BeardedMeat:
Did you wake and bake on empty stomach?

That shii can ruin your morning.

I advice you drink lots of water and take a chill pill.

VirileNelly2420:
So many prophecies.
"I know ure in a relationship. But dat very gal ure rolling with currently is not ur wife"

"This is dis huge job opportunity in d way. Company from Abuja and Lagos will b dragging for ur service. Even u, will b confused of which one to go with. But don't too worry about dat, wen it's time we will pray over it to make a good choice"

"U're a footballer" ...cos of my look. I told him I can't remember d last time my legs touched ball. He said, "but u watch football"? I said yes. He said dey're same thing. .

Met another prophetic man of God.
He checked my body nd saw a well refined abs(six packs).
He said it's the problem am having. Dat he's going to dislodge it using anointing oil. Dat wen he's done, I won't see d packs again. Dat he has done similar task on someone of recent. Billed me 300k.

For my mind I say, "may Amadioha locate u"

kingharzy:
LOL...
.
.
.

These serial "hustlers " need to be stopped. Buh it's too too bad the saviors are the criminals and the criminals are the masses and the masses have chosen to always be the masses.

Eriokanmi:
APC has failed in all areas

othermen:
Nigeria

Emeka71:
As in; ehn; GOD Punish devil.

ISTP:
A former deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academics) of the University of Ibadan, Professor Adigun Agbaje, has been kidnapped.

The kidnappers who have contacted the family are asking for a sum of N50m as ransom.

According to a report by the Foundation for Investigative Journalism, Prof. Agbaje, who is currently on sabbatical at Olabisi Onabanjo University, was on his way to Ibadan at about 6pm on Friday when kidnappers blocked his way near Sat Guru Maharaji Garden.

FIJ also reported that the kidnappers “eliminated some policemen around the scene” before making away with their captives, according to a source in UI.

Agbaje is a professor of Political Science and one of the UI’s most respected products. As gathered, he was, for several years, the only First-Class degree holder in the university’s department of Political Science, until the feat was matched in the 2000s by Tunde Oseni, who is now an Associate Professor at Lead City University, Ibadan.

Adigun is said to be loved by many of his students as he was brilliant as a student himself and a lover of press freedom, having supported the growth of journalism on UI campus in various capacities, to include the Union of Campus Journalists.

highchief1:
which one be to hit,I bought 50k this afternoon

specimenD:
Hmm

I remember when one called me a cultist!

I was so pissed off

Online news platform, Foundation for Investigative Journalism, has revealed how fake prophesies were allegedly given by clerics of the Eternal Sacred Order of Cherubim and Seraphim on Pearse Street, Yaba, Lagos.

Disguising as someone in need of ‘divine help’, the FIJ journalist had approached the branch of the church in February 2022 and sought help.

Describing his arrival at the church, he said, “It is unclear why the gatekeepers at ‘national headquarters’ of the Eternal Sacred Order of Cherubim and Seraphim on Pearse Street, Yaba, Lagos, are so unwelcoming when we arrive in the morning of the second day after the famous Valentine’s Day, but one of them parks us grudgingly, anyway.

Madu Chiboka, the Prophet we had been conversing with, tells us on the phone that a “senior prophet” would attend to us in a matter of minutes. The wait for him inside the church gifts me a few minutes to run my eyes through the auditorium.

“It is not the biggest church you’ll ever see. But I count deep brown pews studiously arranged in 13 rows and four columns, meaning, technically, that the ground floor can sit at least 312 congregants per time if six occupy a pew. There are three more pews at the rear but they are not arranged to fit into the rows; my hunch is that they’re reserved for in-service protocol officials.”

The FIJ report released in October revealed how the prophets (altogether) gave about 15 alleged fake prophesies.

FAKE PROPHECY 1: ‘YOU ARE NOT MOVING FORWARD’

“My dear son,” he says, facing me. “Look [at] what you’re doing.”

He makes the motion of someone who takes a few steps forwards and several more backwards.

“You are not moving forward,” he tells me. “Instead, you are marking time. Even if you’re given N1 million, you’ll squander it,” the Senior Prophet at the church, whose name was not given had said.

FAKE PROPHECY 2: ‘YOU BREAK UP, THEN RETURN TO YOUR EXES’

“You thought you were enjoying; now the ants are biting you. Thank God you have not yet entered into your afternoon (figurative for middle-age) — you are still within your morning (figurative for youth) — and you’re about to enter your afternoon, otherwise the ants would have bitten you beyond recognition,” the prophet was quoted to have said.

He said the Senior Prophet explained that these forces “wanted to use me to shame my family.”

“For example, this girl will come, slight quarrel, you leave her. You date another one and leave her. But when the first comes back, you go to her, returning to your vomit,” he says. “It’s a force that was cast to disgrace your family, and you’re allowing it. You say it’s ‘guy’ (slang for youthful exuberance); it’s not guy; you’re deteriorating yourself,” he quoted the prophet to have said.

Reacting in his story, he said the prophecy was false. “This prophecy is wrong on several fronts. I do not have an active dating life in recent memory. In the last six years, I have only had one-and-a-half relationships — with people I have completely lost touch with, meaning the chance of getting back was never on the cards. And in the preceding years, there was no ex I ever got back with! The prophecy in particular was a pure invention,” the FIJ journalist said.

He listed other prophecies, said to be fake, as proclaimed by the clerics, as: ‘YOU ARE BEING MOCKED’, ‘SEX IN YOUR DREAMS’, ‘PRISON AROUND JUNE, JULY’, ‘YOU’RE IN CHAINS’, ‘YOU ARE A CULTIST’, ‘YOU MADE A PROMISE’, ‘AN INVITATION TO HERBALISTS’, ‘IF YOU TRAVEL, AN ACCIDENT WILL HAPPEN’, and ‘YOUR MOTHER IS NOT HAPPY WITH YOU.’

The journalist noted that the prophecies were false, as he even did some of the things he was warned against and there was no repercussion. Reacting to the prophecy about him travelling and getting involved in an accident, the journalist said, “Another fake prophecy. Actually, I did not listen to Prophet Johnson. I did embark on that trip and returned to base without even a scratch on my car, much less an accident.”

He also said he never saw any trace of being jailed as said by the prophet.

“This prophecy was made in February. It is now October and at no time was there ever a prison scare this year. Not in June, not in July,” the FIJ founded by Fisayo Soyombo reported.

Nigerians may have to brace themselves for a surge in the price of a 50kg bag of locally parboiled rice to as high as N50,000 before December on the back of the floods in many states, traders and distributors of the commodity have said.

Flood incidents in Africa’s biggest economy that have destroyed 70,566 hectares of farmland, damaged 45,249 houses and displaced over 1.4 million Nigerians, with about 600 persons reported dead, according to the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, have sent prices of food items on an upward trajectory, especially in affected communities.

Rice, a key staple mostly consumed by households, has been affected the most by the impact of the flood. The situation has caused the price of paddy to jump from N200,000 to N300,000 per tonne in three weeks owing to the flood.

The recent jump in paddy prices is piling more pressure on rice millers that are already contending with rising production costs amid a nearly three-fold increase in diesel cost.

In September, the country’s inflation hit a 17-year high at 20.7 percent, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.

“With the rate the prices of rice are surging daily, we might even buy it at N50,000 before December,” said Ronke Adewale, a rice trader at Daleko Market in Mushin.

“Our suppliers keep adding money and attributing it to the flood and high cost of transportation,” she said.

“If you have the money, you better buy now and stock because if it persists, it will be worse in December,” she said.

Adewale Adegbenro, a Lagos-based rice distributor who buys from millers in the North, said the price of rice would exceed N50,000 by December owing to supply shortfall caused by the floods.

“As a today, the rice we supplied was sold at N43,000 in Lagos, so it is definitely going to exceed N50,000 by December,” he said.

Mohammed Abubakar, chairman of the Rice Processors Association of Nigeria, said the recent surge in the price of a bag of rice is a result of a combination of issues escalated by the floods.

“The recent surge in the price of a bag of rice is a result of the flooding in major producing states and a combination of other issues of high diesel and transportation costs,” Abubakar said in his response to questions from BusinessDay.

“The flood has submerged hundreds of rice farmlands and has caused the price of paddy to jump from N200, 000 to N300, 000 per tonne. It has also worsened the diesel and transportation situation in the North,” he added.

Currently, 33 out of the country’s 36 states have been ravaged by flood, and this has caused transportation costs to further surge as tankers conveying petroleum products to the northern states are unable to move as the incidents cut most road networks in the region.

BusinessDay surveyed some markets in Lagos and found that a 50kg bag of locally produced parboiled rice sells for an average of N35,000 as against N28,000 a month ago.

A 50kg bag of foreign parboiled rice now sells for N43,000 as against N31,000 a month ago, indicating a 38.7 percent rise in price.

The country’s largest farmland of 10,000 hectares in Nasarawa owned by Olam and worth about $140 million investment has been submerged by floods, according to Ade Adefeko, vice president of external relations and stakeholder management at Olam Agri.

Owing to the current shortfall in supply, some traders of rice in Lagos – the country’s commercial centre – are hoarding the commodity in anticipation of selling at a higher price, BusinessDay gathered.

Since Russia invaded Ukraine in February, the price of rice has been relatively stable amid accelerating inflation and dwindling household income. Experts attributed the price stability of the staple to an increase in local production.

Africa’s biggest economy cultivated 8.2 million metric tonnes of rice paddy in 2020, according to the latest data from UN Food and Agricultural Organisation.

The most recent reliable figures for production come from the United States Department of Agriculture, which has projected that Nigeria’s rice production will reach five million tons in 2022, slightly above the 4.8 million tons it predicted last year.

With this production, the country will still have a deficit of two million tons with demand at 7 million tons, according to the Ministry of Agriculture.

But the gains made in the sector are currently being threatened by flooding and FX volatility as rice is among the 41 items restricted from FX by the country’s apex bank.